Kemenril

Requested a join. My screen name should appear as Kemenril but my account is Thrax1.

Count me in if there's any online campaigns that get going.

Voted! This should be fun.

This could turn into a very long list if I had my way. I've read most of the suggestions here, so I know I'm in good company. I do actually think that Le Guin would be a wonderful "group" focus: she's just such a great writer, and her style and ideas hold strong so many years later. If we are all heading to Earthsea -- so be it! I have read more science fiction than fantasy in the last 5 years, but I would be remiss to not mention Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind (which you should all read before it gets turned into an HBO series or movie or whatever -- Sam Raimi's directing, is all I know). The only challenge with this one is that it's a wee bit long. But my absolute favourite "fantasy" books in recent years have been by China Mieville -- specifically, Perdido Street Station. Now, you could call his works fantasy or steampunk or slipstream, but it doesn't matter, because they're amazing and you should all read them.

It IS slow at first. It also gets fairly weird in several spots. But it's worth sticking with, because the payoff is an introduction to the most politically fascinating science fiction that's ever been written. Oh, and because by the third novel, you get Use of Weapons, which is in my opinion the best science fiction novel ever written.

Oh man, you are in for a treat. The Culture novels are my favourite novels. Of all novels. Forever. Mind you, Consider Phlebas is one of the most peculiar of the lot because it casts the Culture as the villains, rather than the (well, sort-of) protagonists they will become over the course of the rest of the books. In retrospect is a curious choice, but one that pays off, because you come at them in Player of Games (the 2nd novel) with a more dispassionate view. Banks is a genius.

Currently reading the George Smiley series of spy novels. I am a latecomer to Le Carre, but oh man, they are brilliant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smiley I am reading The Honourable Schoolboy right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honourable_Schoolboy And for audiobooks, I am listening to the Horus Heresy series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horus_Heresy_(novels) Just finished Prospero Burns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horus_Heresy_(novels)#book15

Here's a photo of my living room bookshelves from December. This photo does NOT include my nerd-books -- I have as many (if not more) in a disordered mess of 3 shelves in my office upstairs. My wife won't let me keep them in the downstairs area -- APPARENTLY not everyone finds my tastes in literature as "acceptable" as I do.